Let Me Protect You
by shinedown
Summary: Ronan loved Elesis. Elesis hated help of any kind. This causes many untold hardships for the Abyss Knight, who only wanted to make sure that she stayed in his life.


**A/N: Not much to say about this. This is dedicated to a very close friend of mine, so I hope you enjoy. Congrats, chibi.**

'**Til next time**

**~shine**

Disclaimer: You know how it goes, so I don't have to remind you.

~Let Me Protect You~

Ronan Erudon was many things. He was brave, patient, loyal, kind, determined, handsome and charming. He was also the captain of Kanavan's Royal Guard, the very first Abyss Knight in a very long time and a lion on the battlefield. Anyone who got hurt on his watch was avenged twofold. He was a friend, an ally, a calm, wise older brother to everyone who needed him. But above all that…he was in love. With the most infuriating, insufferable menace to his five senses and his nigh unlimited patience.

She was brash, rude, irritating, and thick headed and the worst foul mouthed woman he had ever met in a long time. And he'd met plenty. It was like she went through life diving into everything head first! The first thing a knight learns is the difference between bravery and stupidity, and apparently that lesson went into one ear and straight out the other!

Oh, but don't get him wrong, she was strong enough to handle her own weight, and she had her moments when she became the leader he knew she could be, but by all that was holy, she was so…sdva;oiushag! She had a tendency to make others around her so mad there were no words to speak on how insufferable she was. But, there were good things about her as well.

Like how gracefully she wielded her Ssangeom, twirling and spinning and rushing forth like a cyclone of death. Her tactics often saved more than just herself…even if she tried to take on more than she needed to. Her beautiful, long hair that reached past her thighs when unbound, and her eyes the same shade of red as her hair which would often regard him with mild interest most times. It was rather ingenious; whoever first called her the Ruby Knight. It was a fitting name, really. The image it painted certainly was a beautiful one.

Above all of that, he supposed what he truly had to admire was her strength. Not exactly her physical strength, which was impressive in its own right. But rather, the strength she exhibited when things really mattered. She was like a guardian angel to them all when it really mattered, though not very many could see it. Ronan could, and he supposed that's what originally made him fall in love with her. Because she cared about them in her own way.

She suffered the loss of a loved one, so she guarded herself from ever feeling that pain again. He supposed he could understand. She was the one to console him when Harpe died protecting him, after all. For a while, he had tried the same and found himself being the one lectured, rather than giving the lecture. By her of all people. How he had laughed at the irony.

That still didn't excuse why she was such an insufferable child most of the time, however.

Ronan glanced down at his hands, wondering why his palm ached so much, and found that he had gripped the mug he had been holding so tightly that it broke. Had he really not noticed? He didn't have time to react before Lire was at his side wiping up the blood and asking him if he was all right. He nodded numbly, smiling at the blonde girl as she finished wrapping his hand. "Thank you, Lire. I appreciate it." He spoke kindly to the elf archer and she smiled back at him.

He could feel the gaze of a certain druid on him as he thanked the girl and inwardly frowned. He really ought to realize Ronan wasn't as smooth a talker as the silver tongued gladiator sitting beside the green eyed boy. Ronan could barely conjure up the courage to ask the girl he loved to spend time with him outside of plotting a route for the following day and reprimanding her for upsetting Arme.

Speaking of the tiny mage, he hadn't seen her lately. Lass was quiet as usual, when he wasn't telling them about one adventure he had and inadvertently getting them lost in the process. Normally she'd be with him and asking him to tell her more of his adventure or asking Lire to teach her something new. He shrugged. She was probably okay.

Now that he mentioned it, he hadn't seen much of Elesis either. She had gone somewhere into the forest to train, though knowing her, she wouldn't have gone far. She liked to be close by when lunch was being prepared. He supposed the smell of food was one way to lure the girl back. He couldn't help but laugh at the picture that came to mind: a miniature Elesis floating back to camp like a leaf on the wind, following the smell of what Ronan or Lire had thought to prepare next. Ronan fancied himself a great cook, though he still couldn't compare to Lire. Her meals were usually out of this world.

"Aren't you worried about them? What if they get attacked or something and we're not around to help them?" Lire asked, taking a seat beside the indigo haired knight. He thought about that for a moment and shook his head. He was indeed worried, but he knew both girls well enough to trust their abilities. He knew that if there was something they could not handle, one of them would go for help. Most likely Arme.

And so, hours passed in relative silence. Everyone was off doing their own thing, like always. Lass and Ryan were playing some kind of game in the dirt, clearly bored out of their minds; Sieghart was comfortably in his element, sleeping in Mari's lap while the heterochromatic girl read through a stack of books. Dio and Zero were having a debate of some sort while Ley ordered Jeeves and Sebastian to fight, much to the shorter, scrawny demon's dismay. Jin and Azin trained together, though Jin didn't realize that his sparring partner was in fact out for blood. Amy and Rin watched. Or rather, _Amy_ watched while Rin was forced to stay by the girl and watch when she would rather be enjoying nature with Lire, who was making wreaths for Elesis and Arme for when they returned.

A short while later, Ronan began to cook lunch. He hadn't given much thought to what he was going to prepare in advance, so he decided to just make something simple, yet filling. Evidently, it was also Ryan's favorite dish by him. He'd made sweet curry, and carved up apples so that each one was in a diamond shape with a symbol that best suited each person, and also a way for them to know which plate was theirs. Lire thought it was cute, and couldn't bring herself to eat her apple. Lass had stolen it soon after, however, prompting the normally calm Nova to launch her fork at the Striker, who dodged easily and danced away as the girl gave chase.

Ronan watched the scene with mild interest, but his mind was elsewhere. Arme and Elesis had yet to return, and he was getting worried. So, while he was sure no one was watching or paying attention, he grabbed his Tyrfing and headed off into the forest where he had seen Elesis go. Sieghart had noticed this, however, and gave a knowing smile as he continued to eat. Well, whatever. He'll just let the boy do his own thing and say he tried to warn him later.

Ronan knew better than to call out their names so close to camp, and he knew that Lire, Ryan, Rin, Zero, Dio and Ley were sensitive to magic, so he couldn't really do much but use his eyes to search. He had also forgotten his magic glove, so he couldn't really use his Tyrfing even if he wanted to now. Of all the rotten luck…

A rustle in the bushes behind him alerted the spell knight to someone else's presence, and he slowly made his way toward it, readying a weak fireball spell just in case it was just an animal. Scaring them off was much better than killing them, after all. As he neared the bushes, he could faintly make out a voice. "Stupid Amazon…throwing me into a tree like that…she knows I hate heights!"

"…Arme?" Ronan said, releasing the fireball and diving into the bushes. Sure enough, Arme sat tangled in some branches, hanging upside down trying to release herself while also trying to keep her shirt from falling over her head. Ronan was quick to assist her, and in time they had her sitting on the ground looking plenty pissed. "What happened?"

"That idiot threw me into a tree when she found me following her! I was just trying to find out what she looked so upset for, but I knew she wouldn't tell me if I asked." Arme huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. She looked rather cute like that, and Ronan couldn't help chuckling softly.

"Well why didn't you just use an invisibility spell?"

"You can still smell and hear what you can't see." Arme replied flatly. Ronan had to admire Elesis' ability to track someone invisible just by hearing and smell. Then again, Arme was the only one of then that still used scented soaps. He supposed now she would learn her lesson. "Go on back to camp. I'll continue looking for her." Ronan said before Arme could say anything else. She nodded silently and did as she was told, wishing him luck when he found her. _All the gods above know I'll need it…_ he thought, cracking a thin lipped smile.

His search took him further into the forest than he thought. He sighed. Just how far had this troublesome girl gone? It took some time for him to notice it, but soon he heard the telltale sound of battle just up ahead. Ronan rushed ahead, a hand hovering over the handle of his Tyrfing, but never quite touching it. As he erupted from the forest into a wide clearing, the first thing he could see was the ruby knight surrounded by what seemed to be ghost samurai.

Without waiting another second, he launched into the fray.

While normally he had a well thought out plan of attack, he had to admit he didn't know what to do next. He just went with the flow, launching fireballs and shoving back anyone who got close enough with a weak explosion. "Are you okay?" Ronan asked, throwing down magic mines around them. Elesis was silent for a little while, but when he spoke, it was not what he was expecting.

"…the hell are you doing?" She asked, none too grateful for the aid she had received. She would have been fine if anyone else helped her, but not _him_.

"I believe I would be saving your life." Ronan retorted, glancing back at the girl long enough to take in her glare. He hung his head and sighed. Of course she would be angry at him for saving her from certain death. Well, whatever.

"I don't need your help! Just go away!"

"I cannot. I stand by my comrades when they clearly need it."

"Oh shove it. I can handle this on my own!"

"Well I am staying right here."

"I'm the leader here, remember? And I'm telling you to go!"

"And I'm telling you I won't!"

"I—"

"Will you just shut up and let me protect you?!" Ronan shouted, finally losing his cool. Elesis, shocked, fell silent. "Every time it's the same thing with you! You clearly bite off more than you can chew and yet when someone stands in to help you, you act like a child and throw a fit! What is so bad about wanting to help someone you care about? Why is it such a huge deal that people actually _care about you enough to put themselves in danger for a change?_"

"Um…behind you?" Elesis spoke, her voice quiet. Ronan turned his anger to whoever dared to interrupt him, spying several of the ghost samurai slowly advancing. The mines had exploded in his anger, leaving them wide open for attack.

Or so they thought.

"DON'T IINTERRUPT!" Ronan bellowed, shielding himself and Elesis from harm with an aura of bladed. He expanded the field more and more, pushing back and slashing at the attackers and their fallen comrades, completely annihilating them. However, Ronan's anger was spent, as was his patience when dealing with the girl. He took one last glance at her and frowned, before heading back to camp. Elesis followed at a distance, her wounds momentarily forgotten.

The next few days, Ronan did his best to ignore Elesis, though he normally wouldn't have. She had tried approaching him several times about what he had said to her when he was there to save her, and to apologize for what she said and the way she acted. She hadn't known how he felt…or anyone else for that matter, when she fought all on her own. She was so used to doing most of the work herself that she thought they were just trying to hog all the glory.

When she finally managed to trap him (it was his turn to cook, and he couldn't leave the stew unattended), she sat across the fire from him and smiled softly. "Hey." Ronan merely inclined his head wordlessly, never taking his eyes from the task at hand. "Look, I'm sorry okay? I didn't know."

"It wasn't hard to guess, after all the times people have stepped in to help you." Ronan remarked bluntly. Elesis sighed. "Are we done here? I need to focus on cooking."

"You're one of the few people in this group that know how to multi-task. I think you can stand to have a bit of your time taken for me to say _something_ you jerk." Elesis said, lowering her voice so that only they could hear her. She didn't want to risk causing a scene. It was embarrassing enough just apologizing. She didn't want to risk any rumors about them being started. …I guess what I'm trying to say is…thank you."

"For?"

"You know what for!" Elesis hissed. She sighed. "…for saving my neck all those times. If it hadn't been for you and the others, I wouldn't be alive to look for my father, and bring him home to mom and Eldork. So thank you for that."

"Elesis—"

"I know, with you it's more than that. I get it." She said, turning her gaze down to her hands. "But…I haven't really given much thought to that sort of thing, so I really don't know how I feel about you. I mean I could just jump right in and say 'sure let's go out' or whatever, but it wouldn't really be fair to you, right? So…I guess just give me some time to think about it?"

"Ele—"

"Will you be quiet?! I'm having a hard enough time saying this embarrassing stuff!" Elesis hissed again, glaring at the smirking Abyss Knight. Her temper flared at the sight, but it wasn't until she noticed that he wasn't staring directly at _her_ that she realized something was up.

When she turned to look at what was behind her, her face turned even redder than her hair, all the way to the tips of her ears. Arme, Rin, Amy, Sieghart and Lass were grinning knowingly at the girl. As she struggled to find something to say, Amy wagged her eyebrows at the ruby haired knight, Lass was making kissy faces, Arme was writing furiously in her notepad, Rin sighed dreamily and Sieghart grinned wickedly. "I think it's about time someone gave you two love birds the good ol' talk about the birds and the bees~" He replied, slowly reaching towards his great grand daughter.

That was the first time anyone had seen the girl punch the immortal with all her strength. Of course, this didn't affect the man too much. He still grinned evilly from his spot 15 yards away.

Ronan remained calm throughout all this, hiding his amusement as he stirred the stew which began to boil over in his negligence. The whole time he had been ignoring Elesis, he had thought to put his feelings behind him and just do his best for her as little more than a friend, someone she could count on and a tactician if she needed one. Of course, Mari was much more suited for the job, but she always came to him for advice or to reaffirm her thoughts on something.

Elesis looked to him for support and he shrugged, not knowing what he could do in this situation. _She_ was the one that had brought the subject up, after all. Still, a knight was supposed to help those in trouble, and she looked like she could use it. Just in time too, because lunch was ready. "Grab a bowl guys! Time to eat!" Roman said, clapping his hands loudly once to gain everyone's attention. Elesis threw him a grateful look and sighed softly. "Don't worry. I'll always be here to protect you."

"Careful with that promise. You might need to protect me in other lifetimes if you keep that up." Elesis said, patting Ronan on the shoulder as she passed. He smiled and turned his head to glance up at her.

"So be it."


End file.
